CDM projects in 2008

The latest figures released by UNFCCC on the CDM projects in 2008 show that Asia and Pacific dominated the CDM market, with India and China leading the way (see chart below). For 2009 too, it seems that this trend will continue even though the UN and other international agencies are seriously concerned about the lack of participation from Africa in CDM projects. CDM was started to encourage developing countries to be proactive about climate change mitigation and to provide financial rewards to countries in the developing world that do so. Africa remains a continent with some of the poorest countries of the world and it is essential that CDM stimulates the economy by offering incentives to regions that undertake measures to fight global warming.

India’s continued lead in CDM projects is reassuring news. With the election of Obama as President of USA, a new front in carbon trade is expected to open up. Obama has pledged to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of America by 80 percent (below 1990 levels) by 2050. And he intends to introduce a market-based cap and trade system to meet these reduction targets, which should allow trade in offsets from countries such as India. This shall offer new opportunities in carbon trading in 2009 for India.

Gearing up for clean, green development

Team TOI

Ahmedabad: Besides sectors like energy and micro small and medium enterprises, sectors like development and environment saw huge investment inflows.

The development and environment sector saw investment promises to the tune of Rs 9,203 crore on the second day of the Vibrant Gujarat summit.

As many as 32 MoUs were signed for developing environmental infrastructure in the state with the emphasis being on recycling of waste, treatment of hazardous chemicals and effluents.

At a convention which had climate change and environment as its theme, S K Nanda, principal secretary environment and forests, Gujarat, said, “The state has shown a proactive attitude in including environment with development in the summit”.

Vigilance commissioner and former chief secretary Manjula Subramaniam said, “Gujarat is the country’s third most rapidly urbanising state. This brings with it issues pertaining to waste management.”

While the state government speakers called for more landfill sites to take care of increasing generation of waste, principal advisor of CII’s environment policy division K P Nyati said, “We have a dream of making India a ‘landfill free country’ by 2025. We don’t need to bury the waste into the ground when we can recycle it”. Chairman, Japan Development Institute (JDI) Shoichi Kobayashi called for setting up integrated waste management city’s in Gujarat on the lines of eco towns in Japan. Revealing that Japanese companies in India has raised environmental concerns in the past, Kobayashi stressed the need for technical environment infrastructure, training on related issues.

ENVIRONMENT

GEPIL to set up integrated waste management projects worth Rs 2,500 crore

GEPIL’s GRAMEZ to set up integrated waste management projects worth Rs 2,500 crore

Green Ventures to set up environmental infrastructure in rural areas worth Rs 2,500 crores

PEPL to set up effluent treatment plants worth Rs 200 crore

The Environmental Cost of the Internet

Not only do our computers utilize energy but it seems that our surfing of the net also takes a tool on the environment. A recent report by Gartner, the industry analysts, said the global IT industry generated as much greenhouse gas as the world's airlines - about 2% of global CO₂ emissions. For instance, just browsing a basic website generates about 20 mg of CO₂ for every second one spends on it. Websites with flash animation and video can have emissions of up to 300 mg CO₂ per second.

These main sources of these emissions is from the electricity consumed by its visitors' computers, followed by the network infrastructure needed to transmit the website, with the servers and data centers providing the website as the smallest contributor.

And the latest fads such as Facebook and Twitter which require constant and continuous updates on one's status and minute-by-minute accounts of the happenings in one 's life, usage of the internet and connectivity to websites is only going to increase.

How does one integrate environmental concerns with the indispensable services that web technology provides? This will be the challenge that the next wave of IT revolution will have face.

An Energy Emergency in Europe

This is not the first time that a feud between Russia and Ukraine on gas supplies has threatened the energy security of Europe. While a similar dispute between Russia and Ukraine had begot a similar situation in Europe in 2006, it is more dire this time around. Temperatures have dipped all over Europe as a harsh winter wave continues.

The impasse between Russia and Ukraine should be solved within the next few days – it does not benefit either country to continue the energy crisis in Europe as that will worsen its relationship with the EU. But even this short deadlock has been painful for Europe as it is dependent on gas supplies from Russia for heating and other purposes. Central and Southern Europe has been the worse affected up till now, but it is possible that the crisis will spread as afar West as Germany and France. For instance, Slovakia which gets all its energy supply from Russia declared a state of energy emergency as temperatures in the capital slipped it as low as -5C. Bulgaria and the Balkan states, which are among the poorest nations in Europe also have to resort to similar drastic measures.

The EU should treat this crisis as a wake-up call. Even after the resolution of this current stalemate, there is no guarantee that a similar situation will not arise again next year. Or in a couple of years. EU needs to heed this as a warning sign to increase its commitment to building green energy in its member nations. The only viable long-term solution to EU's energy dependency on Russia and other players is to reduce it. And the surest way of doing that is to invest in green energy and energy efficiency. This will cut down on EU's vulnerability to the political games between Russia and her neighbors, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enable EU to meet its Kyoto targets and be beneficial to the environment.

It however remains to be seen what lesson the EU learns from this latest standoff between its main gas supplier (Russia) and main transit nation for the gas supplies (Ukraine).

Going Green in 2009

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was developed to provide financial incentive to induce the poorer nations to go green. The environmental benefits of going green have long been touted. Similarly the concomitant economic costs of switching over from a business-as-usual scenario have also long been known.

But in a recent lecture, Vinod Khosla, the venture capitalist with a strong interest in environmental startups, did an actual cost-accounting of various green technologies. "A Prius might save you, depending on your calculations, a half a ton to two tons of carbon a year", said Khosla, " but just painting your (home's) roof white saves you 10 tons of CO2. That's good economics. Instead of spending $5,000 extra for that Prius, you could spend a few hundred dollars to replace the light bulbs in your house with more efficient ones and save a lot more carbon."

He also described a 3-year pilot project in Oakland, CA, involving zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell busses saying it cost $1.61 per mile to operate a diesel vehicle, but more than 30 times that amount—$51.66 per mile—to run a zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell bus.

He also presented data showing that while the all-electric powered GM Volt, expected to be sold starting in 2010, would emit 144 grams of carbon dioxide per mile, the vehicle would also cost a hefty $623 a month to drive and much of the electricity required to power the car would be created by burning coal.

Thus, for green technologies to gain wide acceptance it is necessary that they remain cost-effective. They will not achieve popularity and replace fossil fuel based technologies unless they attain economic viability especially over the cheaper and easily available fossil fuel based mainstream technologies.